Kevin's Watch

I'm always picky about keyboards, to the point where I hunted down an out-of-production model because it's the only one I really liked, but I never really paid attention to the mice I use. Well, I splurged today, and bought an Arc Mouse, as I've seen so many positive reviews of it. This is the last hardware I buy - I swear - until I do my next HTPC rebuild. Or that exploded build I've been meaning to get around to. But I digress.

Anyway, my initial reaction is... mixed. With any new interface, there's an adjustment period, so I expected that, but... it honestly feels a lot smaller in my hand than I expected. Not unusably small, it's just that I'm used to having something more substantial there.

Still, I like the feel of it, and I'm liking the swiping area more than a traditional wheel. I already miss having middle-click, as I'd grown accustomed to it, and I find I'm left-clicking when I mean to right-click since there's no clear demarcation of the border between the two. Those are both the kind of things that you adjust to over time, so we'll see.

Do any of you have fancy or favorite mice to use?

I'm still using my old Deathadder I've had for years, even though I don't do any gaming anymore. Love it. Probably 6 years old and still works great.

Funnily enough, I just replaced both my mouse and my keyboard.

My mouse, which was budget gaming mouse, started to pick up two clicks when I had only clicked once, so I checked when I had bought it, expecting it still to be under warranty.

Turns out that, although I had thought it was less than a year old, it was actually 3 years old, (oops) which was pretty good for what I'd paid for it, because I'm hard on them.

So I decided to stick to the same brand, and got this: https://www.redragon.co.za/product/redr ... ing-mouse/

(Nobody needs 16,400 DPI, but it's fully programmable, so I just have it set to switch between 400/800/1200/1600/2000.)

Very substantial mouse, nice and heavy and non-slip. Very happy except the middle mouse button has very little play...need a solid push to get it to register. Otherwise recommended for the price.

And then because I was getting the mouse, thought I might as well replace my ancient keyboard, so got this: https://www.redragon.co.za/product/redr ... -keyboard/

Hybrid keyboard with membrane keys, but mechanical-style feedback, conflict free keys etc. etc.

(Why does everything have LED's in it now? Even my motherboard, RAM and PSU cycle through various colours. )

--A

I'm a fan of all the rainbow LEDs. My computer case is clear on one side, and it came with a remote that changes the colors. Would rather they had put whatever that cost into a better graphics card, but it does look cool. (Currently purple, may go back to turquoise.)

I like Logitech gaming mice. Adjustable weight and sensitivity, extra buttons without overkill on the extra buttons. (I used the Razer Naga for a while. 19 buttons. Who needs 19 buttons?) Currently using the G502 Hero, which replaced a discontinued model that I liked better. This one is good, but the side buttons are more narrow than I'm used to, and that took a while to get used to.

I always build mine from scratch, but it's practically impossible to get upper tier components without the damn things now. (And yes, my case has clear sides, but it's on the floor between my desk and a bookshelf, so it's not like I can really see it.

(Also, I leave the side panel mostly off...think I might have to invest in a liquid cooler...even with a massive heat-sink and 3 fans my CPU runs a little hot on intensive stuff.)

On the other hand, I must admit the led keyboard, (set to dark blue and dim, like my mouse) makes typing in the dark a lot easier.

--A

Avatar wrote:(Also, I leave the side panel mostly off...think I might have to invest in a liquid cooler...even with a massive heat-sink and 3 fans my CPU runs a little hot on intensive stuff.)

Try looking at lower-TDP CPUs for your next build... My current lappy has technically lower IPC, but can run more or less indefinitely in turbo, whereas my old one had to throttle all the damn time.

Lower TDPs are the real achievement of this past decade.

My next build not gonna be for a while. Just put together a i9-9900k rig less than a year ago.

--A